Doc Jargon: D-Day or something else: Naming the operation

Photo By Collen McGee | Doc Jargon, cutting through the jargon that is the U.S. Army.  

FORT RILEY, KS, UNITED STATES

06.09.2023

Story by Collen McGee 

Fort Riley Public Affairs Office

Dear Doc Jargon,

We just observed the 75th commemoration of D-Day from World War II. My question is, how did D-Day end up being named that? I am puzzled because big operations usually have a name, like Operation Desert Storm or Iraqi Freedom. Is it because it was just one piece of the entire war?

Sincerely,
Military History Buff

Dear Military History Buff,

You are right that big operations, which are collections of events throughout a longer period, do get operational names. But a single battle will often be named after a location or a geographic feature. For every battle, D-Day is the day when any combat attack is initiated.

The D-Day most well-known is that of the invasion at Normandy. It is the one time that an often used operational term stuck to a single event.

In addition to D-day, there is another term, H-Hour, which denotes the time the combat offensive begins.
So, though the turning point of World War II was the invasion of Normandy, called Operation Overlord, the term D-Day has been the name that stuck.

I hope that satisfied your military history knowledge quest for the moment. Keep researching as we learn much from the past.

Sincerely,
Doc Jargon

• Date Taken: 06.09.2023
• Date Posted: 06.09.2023 10:13
• Story ID: 446601
• Location: FORT RILEY, KS, US